LIVERPOOL TOLD TO DOUBLE £61.3M INSIGNE OFFER
Liverpool looked desperately short in midfield at West Ham but reports in Italy suggest they want to go big for another forward this summer.

Apparently, the Reds have already tabled a €70million offer for Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne – indirectly, at least. La Republicca, translated by our friends at Sport Witness, says the bid was taken to agents, including Mino Raiola, who didn’t feel comfortable presenting it to Napoli chief Aurelio De Laurentiis in person. So Insigne’s dad was made to do the dirty work, presumably for a handsome cut.

Not that the messenger mattered. De Laurentiis rejected the proposal out of hand, with Napoli apparently valuing Insigne at double the amount on the table. Given the Italy international will be 28 by the time next season kicks off, it seems highly unlikely that the recruitment brains at Anfield would be willing to double their transfer record in this instance.

Sport Witness points out that Insigne is approaching contact renewal negotiations and… ah, right.

 

EMERY EYES THREE WITH TINY BUDGET
Things don’t look likely to get any easier for Unai Emery in the summer. Having been told he could make only loan signings in January, the Arsenal boss has apparently now been informed how much he will be given to spend ahead of next season.

According to the Daily Mail, his kitty will amount to £45million. The Mirror reckons the Gunners will be even more thrifty by giving the manager £5million less than that sum.

Last summer, Brighton, Huddersfield, Cardiff, Watford, Newcastle, Burnley, Palace and, of course, Tottenham were the only clubs with a smaller net spend than what Arsenal are proposing for the next window.

With the Arsenal board’s loose change, and the £300,000 that should be slashed from the wage bill with the exits of Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck and Petr Cech, Emery apparently wants three new players including a new left-back. Bild reckons RB Leipzig centre-back Ibrahima Konate is a target.

The Daily Mail also reports that Arsenal hope to have appointed a new technical director by the summer, with Roma supremo Monchi said to be a leading contender. Given the Spanish recruitment guru could almost have his pick of jobs, you would have to question his sanity for going into Arsenal to work with one hand tied behind his back.

 

AND THE REST
Bayern Munich again offer £35m for Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi in the summer… Marcus Rashford is in talks over a new contract that would more than double his wages to over £150,000 per week… Andre Schurrle will cut short his two-year loan at Fulham if they are relegated… Hertha Berlin want to keep on-loan Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic beyond the end of the season… Barcelona will have to pay £65.8m for Ajax centre-back Matthijs de Ligt… Cristiano Ronaldo wants former Real Madrid team-mate James Rodriguez to join him at Juventus.